Musings From The Farm Comfortable living in your own skin

This month the view from my window has been very white. This winter has been extremely cold and Facsi has had a really bad attitude about it. She throws a little fit every morning waiting for her breakfast to arrive. Poor Caddy is usually the object of her displeasure. She taunts  him over the fence throwing and shaking her head at him with her ears pinned back and occasionally tries to nip him. When all of this is going on the goats pretty much just try to stay out of her way. But little Caddy isn’t the least bit afraid of her and doesn’t back down and tries to nip at her too. This goes on until it’s about feeding time, then they both look in the direction of the house and wait for their humans to come and feed them.  When we get to the barn Fasci bangs on her door with her front foot!   She is rather grumpy and demanding when she is hungry. I think part of the reason she bothers Caddy so much is because he is a very slow eater and she gets mad that after she has gobbled up all her hay she can see him happily munching away on his hay.

This time last year I was lamenting the demise of Fasci’s Tail. One long winter night, one or more of the goats decided it would break the boredom to chew Fasci’s tail. Overnight they chewed off about two feet of tail hair. So when I looked out my window and saw the goats messing with her tail I knew I had to take immediate action.

I think the main reason for the goats sudden interest in Fasci’s course black tail was the decrease in their hay. I was giving them extra rations because of our colder than usual temps. When the temps returned to the usual winter cold, they are thinking they need something more to munch on.

So I got out the “Bitter Yuck!”. It is a bitter tasting product used for dogs. It keeps them from chewing on items they shouldn’t. When I went out to the barn to spray Fasci’s tail, I had forgotten how much Allie liked the supplements she got when she was pregnant that came in a similar bottle. But Allie didn’t!  So I had to fight my way past a goat, determined to taste a sample of my bottle.

Eventually I was able to spray Fasci’s tail with “Bitter Yuck” and we’ll just have to wait and see if the goats let her keep her tail for fly season this summer!

We had such a fun Christmas season here with family and friends. Christmas morning started with me making scalloped potatoes for dinner later with Dean’s siblings. Against my better judgement I filled the pan to the brim and put it in the oven. By the time everyone was here to open presents and have breakfast the house was filling with smoke. So even though the temps were in the single digits we opened windows and doors and bundled the little ones under blankets on the couch! Fortunately we put a cookie sheet under my  overflowing potatoes and the the smoke stopped and the house cleared and we shut the windows and warmed up the house. The day after Christmas we had our son and his wife and her family come and stay with us. Her family got to experience a real snowstorm and temperatures colder than they ever had before. We all enjoyed our visit and they even got to stay an extra day because of the storm. They are safely home now and I am glad they left just before we dipped down to -18 degrees. But this is winter in the great northeast. Stay warm!

Oh My oh my! This isn’t the view from my window. It was the view from my bed! Just in case my life seemed too boring we volunteered to do dog sitting for our son and daughter-in-law’s german shepherd Trigger, while they visited family in North Carolina. Unfortunately Trigger loves Jordi  so much and has just a tad of separation anxiety. It was a long first night. It was pretty rough for Trigger (and me and Dean and our bedroom carpet)!  I am happy to report there have been no more incidents and that Trigger has decided life on the farm is not that bad!

Dog Sitting Trigger

It’s no secret that we love our dog Chia. We got her seven years ago after a year of sad goodbyes of parents dying, our kids moving out of the house and several states away and the last straw was when our 14 year old dog had to be euthanized as much as it broke our hearts.

About a month after that I had to fill in the dog shaped hole in my heart and Chia has done that perfectly. I had always heard that poodles were not only very smart, but eager to please. Even though Dean was not keen on the idea of having what he called a foo foo dog, I was completely sold on our next dog being a poodle. And I thought the fact that they don’t shed was a big plus.

For some reason my beloved little Chia pet took a very long time to house train. I would take her out, but she was always leaving little puddles when I wasn’t looking. For a while I thought, what was I thinking getting a puppy, but eventually she got the idea. She has an endearing and gentle personality and I often find myself calling her sweetie. Early on I was sewing toys for her and I would fill them with unshrunk shrink wrap. She loved to chew on them and make that crinkly noise. Now every time she hears my sewing machine I find her looking up at me in excited anticipation, thinking I am making her a new toy. Actually anytime anything comes in the house that vaguely resembles something that could be a dog toy she wants to check it out. I think that’s what happens when you get a dog when your kids move out. They get the idea they are the center of the universe.

I had read that dogs can learn up to 300 words and I tried to get her to connect to lots of words. I didn’t know how much she listened to our conversations until one day a friend was telling me about her daughters pet rabbit when Chia came in a set her toy rabbit on the table in front of her. We just looked at each other in amazement! She seems to like to think she is helping so we have taught her to close doors, bring notes to each other as well as put her toys away, which she promptly spreads out all over the room again.  Even Dean is quite taken with her. I clip her myself and give her what Dean calls a farm clip, basically a crew cut. She doesn’t look foo foo and it helps with burrs and ticks. She is smart a wonderful companion and puts up with all our nonsense.